What’s Wrong with Thinking of Church as Family?
Lee Ann M. Pomrenke says the beloved metaphor of church as family can stand in the way of a congregation being truly open and inclusive.…
Browsing: Women and Leadership
Articles
7 Ways Your Church Can Respond to the Reality of Sexual Assault
Ruth Everhart, a pastor, author, and sexual assault survivor, outlines steps that any church can take to respond to the sexual victimization of women. Scripture,…
How Inclusive, Participatory Leadership Revitalized the Girl Scouts of America
Lovett H. Weems Jr. highlights leadership lessons from the life of Frances Hesselbein and her impact on the Girl Scouts. She was a passionate servant…
The Church’s #Me Too Reckoning
How can the church confront its complicity in sexual abuse and misconduct? In this interview, Ruth Everhart, a leading voice on issues of sexual abuse…
“The Church’s #MeToo Reckoning” featuring Ruth Everhart
Podcast Episode 117 How can the church confront its complicity in sexual abuse and misconduct? Ruth Everhart says churches must restore justice by creating safe…
3 Key Lessons from Leadership Pioneer Mary Parker Follett
Lovett H. Weems Jr. explains how Mary Parker Follett, a pioneering leadership thinker who valued human interaction and interconnectivity, influenced his thinking on key leadership…
Episode 37: “Learning about Leadership from Women in the Bible” featuring Carla Works
What can we learn from the example of women leaders in the Bible? In this episode we speak with Carla Works, associate professor in New Testament at Wesley Theological Seminary, about leadership lessons from biblical women.
3 Actions Churches Should Take in Light of #MeToo
Phill Martin, a clergy coach and an executive with the National Association of Church Business Administrators, says churches should take proactive steps to protect against…
5 Ways Female Leaders Undermine Themselves
Church consultant Susan Beaumont says that power accrues more easily to men than women in our culture, so women need to be especially savvy about…
Episode 16: “Women and the Power Dynamics of Leadership” featuring Susan Beaumont
Why do women leaders sometimes struggle with using their power and influence? Listen as Lewis Center Associate Director Ann Michel speaks with church consultant Susan Beaumont about how women leaders can learn to use power constructively in leadership relationships.
7 Ways Congregations Can Respond to the #MeToo Movement
The #MeToo movement has been a wakeup call regarding the pervasiveness of sexual harassment and misconduct in virtually every sector of society, including the church.…
Unsticking a “Stuck” Institution
In 2014, Amy Butler stepped into the pulpit of The Riverside Church in Manhattan, a church well known for its public witness and prominent pastoral…
Episode 9: “Leading a Historic Congregation” featuring Amy Butler
How do you balance tradition and innovation? In this episode, Lewis Center Director F. Douglas Powe, Jr., speaks with Rev. Amy Butler of The Riverside Church in New York City. They discuss insights for leading a historic church.
Related Resources
Unsticking a “Stuck” Institution by Amy Butler
Discovering God’s Future for Your Church Video Tool Kit
Clergy Age Trends in the United Methodist Church in 2016
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., reports that despite a modest but steady increase in the number of young clergy in the United Methodist Church over the…
The Myth of Balance
Karoline Lewis writes that the notion that one can keep all the important aspects of life in perfect balance is an unattainable myth. It can…
To the Point: Suggestions for Churches with a Clergywoman
Celebrate your new pastor. Know that your new pastor continues a tradition of women in ministry going back to biblical times. Do all that you…
Young Clergy Numbers Grow Among Young Clergywomen
For over ten years, the Lewis Center in partnership with the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits has reported annually on Clergy Age Trends in…
To the Point: Why Women Are Clergy
The many Christian denominations that ordain women as clergy do so for sound biblical, historical, and theological reasons — even though there are traditions that…
Leaders Listen
National news recently quoted a speech by a Microsoft executive who said women should trust the “system” to take care of their pay raises. Previously,…
Do Male and Female Pastors Lead Differently?
What do we know about the differences between men and women serving as lead pastors of large congregations? Not enough. But we do know more…
Women Leaders Changing the Church
Mary Clark Moschella reviews Back Talk! by Susan Wilhauck which distills insights from feminist theories to articulate a bold strategy to change the church. Backtalk!…
Women and Leadership: New Ways of Thinking
Ann Michel discusses how decades of ordination of women has led to progress with regard to the understanding of women’s leadership, but challenges remain. This…